NEW restaurants present great possibilities. "Will it be a dream or a dud?" we wonder as we stand outside the door awaiting the total dinner experience. Then, once we've been there, done that and told all, we move on, noshing nomads tearing our way through culinary oases. Cafe Miro’s unusual
menu is a rare treatSometimes, restaurants are good enough to win our devotion with a love at first bite attraction. You know what that feels like don't you? So do I. That's why Cafe Miro presents such a mystery. You may not know whether to love it or hate it.
"It's really weird," I was warned before I visited the Waialae restaurant. I brushed off the remark, thinking, "Fear not, I will figure out this puzzle."
The cafe presents what it calls "French cuisine with Spanish, Italian and Japanese influences." Interesting, but not too unusual in these days of fusion cuisine.
The room is rather eclectic, to put it nicely. Non-luxe colors of brown, tan, wheat and sienna would be more at home in a health-food or vegetarian restaurant. Bulky barriers and facades look like they were created from Southwest sandstone, and dark, heavy light fixtures and white lacy curtains add to the restaurant's '70s meets the '80s feel of bad home decor.
Rather than subject my eyes to this offense, I turned to the menu, which looked pleasing enough. It offered four appetizers and four entrees that will change weekly. The $15 Menu A gives you a choice of salad or soup with your entree; Menu B offers a choice of appetizer, entree and the Chef's Dessert, for $25.
I had to go with the larger plan. I couldn't resist trying the Prawn, Scallop and Fish Salad, soaked in an orange-lime soy sauce, layered on mixed greens, watercress and radicchio. Even if the sauce was quite basic, the seafood was perfectly cooked. A woman at another table pronounced it "the best salad I ever tasted."It was not the best for me, but it was far superior to another salad of Marinated Atlantic Salmon. This was topped with a caper vinaigrette and red peppercorns. The thin fillets of salmon left much to be desired, looking more like flattened pieces of sole.
AS the meal progressed, I never questioned the chef's cooking skill; only the skimpy cuts of meat and fish used. Maybe we're accustomed to eating more in Hawaii.
Chef/owner Shigeru Kobayashi is from Japan, but worked in kitchens of Tokyo, Australia and France, and the latter experience showed in an excellent Provencal Fish Soup ($7.50 a la carte), rich from a stock of fish, onions, bouquet garni and cream. This was well worth the price, filled with prawns, scallops and opah. It was capped with a garlic-aioli-topped crouton.
On the entrees, a Honey Brandy Sauce was a perfect complement to Roasted Duck Breast with grapes. Delicate saffron barely figured in a Saffron Mushroom Sauce that topped Sauteed Opah. Both were accompanied by ratatouille and scalloped potatoes.
The meal ended spectacularly, with the Chef's dessert, a trio of Almond Pudding, Banana Crepe and Strawberry Sorbet surrounded by fresh fruit. My first target was the golden web of molasses threads that topped the sorbet . My friend set it aside to enjoy later -- a mistake since the delicate net melted away. He was left dabbing futilely at drops of sugar.
By the time I left, I was not entirely won over, but I had sampled enough delicious things to be eager to see what else Cafe Miro will come up with.
Cafe Miro
Where: 3446 Waialae Ave.
Nadine Kam's restaurant reviews run on Thursdays. Reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Bulletin. Star ratings are based on comparisons of similar restaurants:
To recommend a restaurant, write: The Weekly Eater, P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu, Hawaii 96802. Or send e-mail to features@starbulletin.com-- excellent;
